Arnold Bennett;: A biography

by Margaret Drabble

'Arnold Bennett was born in a street called Hope Street. A street less hopeful it would be hard to imagine.' Thus begins Margaret Drabble's biography of a man whose most famous achievement was to re-create, in such novels as The Old Wives' Tale and Clayhanger, the life, atmosphere and character of the 'Five Towns' region in which he was born and grew up. Arnold Bennett is a very personal book. 'What interests me', writes the author, 'is Bennett's background, his childhood and origins, for they are very similar to my own. My mother's family came from the Potteries, and the Bennett novels seem to me to portray a way of life that still existed when I was a child, and indeed persists in certain areas. So like all books this has been partly an act of self-exploration.' Of Bennett as a writer Drabble says 'The best books I think are very fine indeed, on the highest level, deeply moving, original and dealing with material that I had never before encountered in fiction, but only in I feel they have been underrated, and my response to them is so constant, even after years of work on them and constant re-readings, that I want to communicate enthusiasm.' Of Bennett as a man she paints an affectionate portrait, not glossing over the irritability, dyspepsia and rigidity which at times made him so difficult a companion but reminding us too of his honesty, kindliness and sensitivity. 'Many a time,' she writes at the end of the book, 're-reading a novel, reading a letter or a piece of his Journal, I have wanted to shake his hand, or to thank him, to say well done. I have written this instead.'

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, British Literature

396 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Dame Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the author of eighteen novels including A Summer Bird-Cage, The Millstone, The Peppered Moth, The Red Queen, The Sea Lady and most recently, the highly acclaimed The Pure Gold Baby. She has also written biographies, screenplays and was the editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. She was appointed CBE in 1980, and made DBE in the 2008 Honours list. She was also awarded the 2011 Golden PEN Award for a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd.

Drabble famously has a long-running feud with her novelist sister, A.S. Byatt. The pair seldom see each other, and each does not read the books of the other.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best modern biography of Bennett, thorough yet readable.

[R.J. Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's ages since I first read this book; it's still on my bookshelves and I still love it. I doubt whether any equally perceptive study of Arnold Bennett has ever been written.

[Daisy Jenel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this whilst at university in the late 1980s and going through an Arnold Bennett phase. Still love Bennett as an author. Drabble's biography fills in all the details to enable readers to understand not just the background to his 'Five Towns' stories but the whole wealth of Bennett's writing - fiction and non-fiction. His interest in the French realist writers of the time makes sense of lesser known novels such as 'The Pretty Lady'; and, like Oscar Wilde, he wrote for women's magazines as well as producing more literary works. Recommended to anyone who likes Arnold Bennett.

[Tom van Veenendaal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written and judicious in its selection of what to include of Bennett's long and, for the most part, moderately interesting life. The only downside – and it is a considerable one – is that Drabble fails to sell us on the necessity of a biography of Bennett. I did not close the last page of this book more convinced of Bennett's literary achievements or stature as a man. Too often I found myself agreeing with the criticisms Drabble quotes to refute! Is Bennett worth rediscovering? I do not think so. Drabble makes as good a case for the opposite as, I imagine, can be made.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drabble obviously likes the man. And so do I, of course. I am well prepared to learn in a biography of someone I find literally great, that he was somewhat less than likeable in real life. But it seems Bennet war a nice guy. Which does not come as a surprise.
The book is also superbly written. Just deep enough to be very nearly completely satisfying.
I only wished she had gone into his book collecting. Drabble is also a novelist and sister of A.S. Byatt. But I will certainly not hold this against her.

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent biography, where Drabble asks herself why she likes him, what she likes in him, on top of giving him the credit (or the absence thereof) when due.
She's highly sympathetic but honest, cold-eyed when needed, and she's done the work.
I'd recommend reading Bennett's wonderful Journal as well (and his novels, why not!), but this is a solid, solid work.